1) Adrian Mutu Given a seven month ban for his positive test in 2004, Chelsea sacked the Romanian striker. Last summer Fifa ordered him to pay the club £13.4million compensation but he said he would appeal against the ruling.

2) Mark Bosnich Another Chelsea player to fall foul of the drugs testers, the Aussie keeper was banned for nine months in 2003 after cocaine traces were found in his sample. He blamed it on someone spiking his drink – but Chelsea still sacked him.

3) Dock Ellis The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher, who died last month, had dropped acid with his girlfriend one afternoon in 1970, not realising it was actually a match day. He arrived in time to play and pitched a no-hitter despite being "psyched". "The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes; sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't," he recalled in his autobiography.

4) Martina Hingis The Swiss miss retired after testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon in 2007 and being given a two year ban. But she protested her innocence, saying: “I've never taken drugs and I am 100 per cent innocent. The reason I have come out with this is because I do not want to have a fight with anti-doping authorities."

5) Kieren Fallon Just 24 hours after the collapse of a corruption trial, it was announced that the six times champion jockey had given a positive sample following, ironically, Myboycharlies win at Deauville in August 2007. He was given a world wide 18 month suspension in January 2008 having previously been suspended for six months in June 2006 after testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine.

6) Diego Maradona A positive test for cocaine use saw the Argentina legend suspended from the Italian league for 15 months in 1991. He failed another test at the World Cup in 1994, sent home after testing positive for ephedrine, and doctors said he had suffered an overdose in 2004. Having beaten his addiction, he was last year named manager of the national team.

7) Mark Lewis-Francis The sprinter was stripped of his silver medal at the 2005 European indoor championships when he tested positive for cannabis. He claimed the drug had got into his system passively and was given a warning by UK Athletics, while the British Olympic Association lifted its standard lifetime ban on those who have failed drugs tests..

8) Pieter de Villiers France’s tight head prop tested positive for cocaine and ecstasy in December 2002. He insists he did not knowingly take the drugs, weeping in front of the press as he faced up to the consequences, and put the test result down to his drink being spiked on a night out in Paris. French anti-doping laws at the time said only performance-enhancing drugs can be sought in out of competition testing, so the French Rugby Federation suspended him from rugby until the end of the Six Nations for bringing the game into disrepute.

9) Russell Garcia A gold-winning member of the GB hockey team as a teenager in 1988, he became the sport’s most infamous player when he landed a three month ban for a positive test for cocaine in 1999 but returned to international competition after his ban.

10) Ed Giddins One of cricket’s more colourful characters having already served a five year suspension for betting on his county to lose, he was sacked by Sussex for cocaine use in 1996. He blamed it on having his drink spiked at a party.